NBA 2019-2020

It’s first game of season but I was arguing with my mate recently that Clippers have way more death than Lakers. He was of the opinion that Lakers will walk the title because their squad is huge. Maybe three years ago all those names would have been scary but there was a reason why they were all available on July 6 and did not get offers above minimum.

Lakers will improve and will be a contender for sure but they will also have an extremely tiny margin for error all season long. AD goes out for 4 weeks and they probably don’t make the playoffs.
 
Moby said:
Great start by the Clips. Easily took care of Lakers with George. Their depth is insane. 50 odd points from the bench today as well.
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They have 10 legit NBA players and many different lineups to throw at teams. Even at center though they don’t have top tier quality, between Zubac, Harrell and Green they have three completely different players who can do a lot of damage.

And nobody has anything remotely close to the Harrell & Lou Williams combo coming off the bench.
 
Lebron was invisible in the 4th, Davis not much better either. Beverley is a funny guy :lol:
highest rebounder on the Clippers with 10 (2 offensive ones!)
 
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Sarni said:
It’s first game of season but I was arguing with my mate recently that Clippers have way more death than Lakers. He was of the opinion that Lakers will walk the title because their squad is huge. Maybe three years ago all those names would have been scary but there was a reason why they were all available on July 6 and did not get offers above minimum.

Lakers will improve and will be a contender for sure but they will also have an extremely tiny margin for error all season long. AD goes out for 4 weeks and they probably don’t make the playoffs.
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Lakers bench is shit. If LeBron or AD misses 30 games combined, they're not making the playoffs.
 
elmo said:
Lakers bench is shit. If LeBron or AD misses 30 games combined, they're not making the playoffs.
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That’s what I think as well. They have two excellent players and one very good player, that’s all. The rest of their roster... if you took all of them at the best points in their career, they would be excellent - Bradley, KCP, Dudley, Howard, Rondo were all good once. They aren’t anymore though.
 
Sarni said:
That’s what I think as well. They have two excellent players and one very good player, that’s all. The rest of their roster... if you took all of them at the best points in their career, they would be excellent - Bradley, KCP, Dudley, Howard, Rondo were all good once. They aren’t anymore though.
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I've been saying this all summer on Reddit. Lakers fans keep thinking they've the best depth in the league, the first 10 games will show them how deluded they are when they realise the heavy minutes LeBron and AD will have to play for them to have a chance for winning.

Remove either of them and they're basically the worst team mates that AD/LeBron will ever have to carry to the playoffs.

Add in how competitive the rest of the Western contenders are (literally all of them have the majority of their plahers in their peak or their tail end of their peak ) and I really doubt LeBron/AD and a bunch of past its are as good as everyone thinks.

I've them 6-8 seeds at best, considering their health history and their current squad.
 
elmo said:
I've been saying this all summer on Reddit. Lakers fans keep thinking they've the best depth in the league, the first 10 games will show them how deluded they are when they realise the heavy minutes LeBron and AD will have to play for them to have a chance for winning.

Remove either of them and they're basically the worst team mates that AD/LeBron will ever have to carry to the playoffs.

Add in how competitive the rest of the Western contenders are (literally all of them have the majority of their plahers in their peak or their tail end of their peak ) and I really doubt LeBron/AD and a bunch of past its are as good as everyone thinks.

I've them 6-8 seeds at best, considering their health history and their current squad.
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Margin for error in the West will be very thin. The way I see tiers in the West currently:

Playoff locks:
Clippers
Jazz
Rockets
Nuggets (interesting to see how much they improve, could be a 60-win team but also below last years win total)

Very likely to make playoffs:
Blazers (barring injuries/difficulties with chemistry of the new team)

Will fight for 6-8 seeds:
Spurs
Lakers
Kings
Warriors

Outside chance to fight for 8th seed:
Pelicans (depending on Zion health)
Mavericks (depending on Porzingis health)

No hope:
Suns
Grizzlies
Thunder (though they are much better than the other two)

With Klay out for the season I don't think Warriors have a great chance to make the playoffs with their lack of quality beyond Curry, Green and Russell but they may have a big trade in them if they decide to use Russell as an asset. Spurs always make the playoffs, Kings were fairly good last season and are a year older with more depth.

Pelicans would IMO have a great chance if Zion was healthy. Their depth is incredible and they have plenty of upside. Mavericks will largely depend on Porzingis form and health, they lack quality beyond Doncic and him. I think a lot of people are sleeping on Thunder, they will not be great but they have plenty of quality and unless they make some trades to get rid of Adams, Gallinari and Paul, they should comfortably get to 35-38 wins and with a bit of luck that may go higher.
 
The warriors being 10/3 to not make the playoffs is an incredible bet imo . I think they will struggle to make the playoffs with everyone fit and if anything goes wrong with Steph they will win less than 35 games imo
 
way too soon to be writing the Lakers off. yeah if they lose LeBron or AD they're screwed, but you can say that about most teams if they lose one of their big 2 (perhaps only the Clippers are excused here due to their incredible depth, and even then i don't think they win the championship with no Kawhi). luckily for the Lakers they don't have to play the Clippers every night, who are probably the faves to win it all right now.
 
Easy win by the Clippers. That was suprising, and not that they actually won.

I don't know. If this game is anything to go by, I expect the Lakers to lose the next game as well.
 
@Sarni in league pass is there no way to get to a game to watch the next day with it showing you the score 3 times :mad:
 
AD and Lebron FGefficiency was 15/40, but this is influenced by playing against a great defensive team. Still, difficult to win with those numbers.

Lakers dynamics looks off and seems that the team is dependent on Lebron to make things happen, while Clippers works well without their stars. One unit vs 2 stars and some additional players.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
The warriors being 10/3 to not make the playoffs is an incredible bet imo . I think they will struggle to make the playoffs with everyone fit and if anything goes wrong with Steph they will win less than 35 games imo
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Agreed. One of the best bets of season for me, though not equivalent of Minnesota to miss playoffs / under 46.5 last year which was amazing value.

Another one this year is Indiana under 48.5 wins. It's free money and you can get it at 4/5. No way they are getting to 49, probably not even 45.
 
There'll be big difference this season between good regular season teams and good playoff teams.

I'm not sure Clippers will actually win that many games in regular season. They will probably go over their line which was set at 53.5 but I will not be surprised if it's not by much and I will not be surprised if Nuggets or Jazz get more wins. However, in a playoffs series between them and Nuggets or Jazz I would pick them every single time. Lakers might be there as well, i.e. they could very well win 44 or 45 games and just about sneak into the playoffs but when the time comes in April, they could beat anyone they face out there.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
The warriors being 10/3 to not make the playoffs is an incredible bet imo . I think they will struggle to make the playoffs with everyone fit and if anything goes wrong with Steph they will win less than 35 games imo
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Much as I hate to say it I've got to agree. The prognostication from Steve Kerr that Klay is unlikely to come back this year makes getting to the playoffs even more unlikely. With Klay coming back the team had an incentive to keep fighting throughout in the hope that they could make a strong push at the end, but if he is a no go I can see them throwing in the towel if things start going in the wrong direction.
 
stepic said:
way too soon to be writing the Lakers off. yeah if they lose LeBron or AD they're screwed, but you can say that about most teams if they lose one of their big 2 (perhaps only the Clippers are excused here due to their incredible depth, and even then i don't think they win the championship with no Kawhi). luckily for the Lakers they don't have to play the Clippers every night, who are probably the faves to win it all right now.
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Except the rest of the Western contenders can still manage to do fine and will probably make the playoffs even with 1 star injured. Lakers are 1 injury away to LeBron/AD to becoming to plan for the next draft and tank, that's how bad their team is beyond their two stars.

Lack of ball handlers other than Rondo is going to kill LeBron's health before the playoffs begin.
 
One team had most of their pieces together from last season, the other had KCP. Expected the Clips to be favored in their first meeting especially on their "home" floor.
 
I find too much change in teams a bit annoying tbh . There is no real team building and I wonder what fans think of it . Lakers fans obviously want to win after this lean spell but not a single starter yesterday had been on the roster before 2018 . Kcp being the longest serving Lakes on the roster tells a story. Fans will turn very quickly if things go south
 
I'd have more confidence in the Lakers if they had some way to improve their team. They're asset poor after the Davis trade though and seem to be stuck with what they've got.
 
elmo said:
Except the rest of the Western contenders can still manage to do fine and will probably make the playoffs even with 1 star injured. Lakers are 1 injury away to LeBron/AD to becoming to plan for the next draft and tank, that's how bad their team is beyond their two stars.

Lack of ball handlers other than Rondo is going to kill LeBron's health before the playoffs begin.
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Selling Danny Green really short there. He was excellent in the season opener and will likely be a very important piece for them with his 3 pt shooting.
 
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